Lorenzo V. Mugnai

About

Lorenzo V. Mugnai

Postdoctoral researcher in exoplanet science, based in Cardiff. My work sits close to the instrument and close to the data: I build the simulators mission performance studies depend on, and I coordinate the simulation and pipeline effort for ESA Ariel.

Background

The short version

I studied physics and astrophysics in Florence, then took a master's in astronomy and astrophysics at Sapienza University of Rome, summa cum laude, with a thesis on near-infrared photometry of the hot Jupiter WASP-103b. I stayed in Rome for a PhD, working on instrument design and science optimisation for Ariel.

Since 2023 I have been a postdoctoral research associate at Cardiff University, with a visiting position at NASA JPL and an honorary fellowship at UCL. My work centres on the ESA Ariel mission: I coordinate its end-to-end simulation and data-pipeline working group, co-own and manage the official Ariel software repository, and build much of the radiometric and time-domain simulation software the mission relies on. I also generated the data for the NeurIPS Ariel Data Challenge in 2024 and 2025.

Alongside research I run a small web development studio, mug.n.ai, co-founded YRoot Coaching around a decision-making framework I designed, write fiction and non-fiction, and produce the Growing Worlds podcast. I am a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and of the European Astronomical Society.

Available for postgraduate supervision at Cardiff University.

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Portrait of Lorenzo V. Mugnai

Appointments

Positions held

  1. 2023–present

    Postdoctoral Research Associate

    Cardiff University · Cardiff, UK

  2. 2024–2025

    Visiting Researcher

    NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · Pasadena, USA

  3. 2023–2025

    Honorary Research Fellow

    University College London · London, UK

  4. 2022–2025

    Research Associate

    INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo · Palermo, Italy

  5. 2021–2023

    Research Fellow

    Sapienza University of Rome · Rome, Italy

Education

Degrees

  1. 2018–2021

    PhD in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science

    Sapienza University of Rome · Rome, Italy

    Thesis: Characterisation of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets: instrument design and science optimisation of Ariel.

  2. 2015–2017

    MSc in Astronomy and Astrophysics

    Sapienza University of Rome · Rome, Italy

    Summa cum laude. Thesis: near-infrared multi-band photometry of WASP-103b, in collaboration with Keele, Cardiff and Tokyo, using the SIRIUS camera on the IRSF telescope at SAAO.

  3. 2008–2014

    BSc in Physics and Astrophysics

    University of Florence · Florence, Italy

Recognition

Selected awards and grants

  1. 2026

    Physics finalist, STEM for BRITAIN

    UK Parliament, House of Commons

    National finalist selected to present research to MPs, peers and scientific judges.

  2. 2026

    Nominated, Staff Member of the Year

    Enriching Student Life Awards, Cardiff University

    Student-nominated award recognising contributions to the student learning experience.

  3. 2025

    Ignite Cynnau small grant, principal investigator

    Cardiff University

    GBP 2,000 bursary to launch the Growing Worlds podcast.

  4. 2024

    Visiting Joint Research bursary

    NAOJ, Tokyo

  5. 2021

    VitaminaG, principal investigator

    Regione Lazio

    EUR 25,000 for the outreach project Sguardi sul cielo del Lazio.

  6. 2018

    PhD fellowship, three years

    Sapienza University of Rome

2024 to 2025: 1,600,000 core hours, principal investigator. Supercomputing Wales: population-level simulations and data analysis for exoplanet atmosphere characterisation with Ariel.

Teaching

Teaching and mentoring

MSc thesis supervision and microprojects 2025 to present
Cardiff University. Supervise two to three MSc thesis projects a year and mentor team-based MSc microprojects in the Advanced Astrophysics curriculum.
PhD mentoring 2023 to present
Cardiff University. Mentor for a doctoral researcher.
PhD co-supervision 2020 to 2025
UCL and Sapienza University of Rome. Co-advised two doctoral researchers, one at UCL and one at Sapienza University of Rome.
Invited teacher, ARES III Ariel Retrieval Exoplanet School 2023
Biarritz, France. Taught a class of more than 20 graduate students, PhD candidates and postdocs.

Contact

Get in touch

For research collaborations, academic roles, speaking, or a scientific or technical consulting enquiry. For web and software development work, mug.n.ai is the better starting point.

This opens your email client with the message pre-filled. Prefer to write directly? mugnail@cardiff.ac.uk